LIVE NATURALLY
The following story happened in the meditation history. “Calm mind, Path recognized.” It was the introductory and guiding words of Zen Master Nan-Chuan P’u-Yuan for Zen Master Zhao-Chou-T’sung-Shen.
Zhao-Chou asked: “What is the Path?”
Nan-Chuan replied: “Calm mind, Path recognized.”
Zhao-Chou asked again: “Can I get there by route?”
Nan-Chuan: “With that, you’ll get farther and farther away from it.”
Zhao-Chou: “If not thinking of it, how can one know it is the Path?”
Nan-Chuan: “To know or not is not the Path. Knowing is mistaking. Not knowing is dull-minded. If one truly reaches it, then, like space, it is immensely empty. Is he still clinging to dualism?”
Listening to that, Zhao-Chou immediately got awakened.
What is “a normal mind?" It should be understood in the Buddhist Zen scope. It means a quiet, peaceful, perpetual and unchangeable mind.
"Path" is a road, or the way of mind cultivation. It is the empty, transparent, ultimate truth encompassing the entire universe. It also signifies to the absolute reality, and the Sunyata.
The whole sentence “Calm mind, Path recognized” indicates the original mind nature is crystal clear, inconceivably boundless and barren. It is also the Thusness Truth, the Emptiness and Awakening Nature.
Zen Master Ma-Tsu once guided Zen Master T’a-Mei-Fa-Chang by his introducing words to the Path “ The Mind, The Buddha. ” The latter master was insightful, went back to the T’a-Mei mountain, secluded himself for mind training and got enlightened.
“ The Mind, The Buddha ” signifies the nature of our mind is the awakening. No need to look for it anywhere. Turning outward is getting lost.
There is a stanza in the Buddhist Zen as follows:
“Internally eliminating affliction, double-increased diseases,
Externally diverting to True Thusness, both mistaken.”
Those two verses mean if a Buddhist practitioner wants to terminate his worries, he will get mentally sicker. (He does not understand the agonies themselves are barren, dreamlike and compiled by conditions.) The mind launches out, expecting to get the ultimate truth. Both are wrong. (The mind essence is unchangeable. Seeking outward for that utmost truth is incorrect.)
In the sutra piece Angulimāla, we remember the Buddha replied when Angulimāla called out:
--- Sramana, stop! Stop, Sramana!
---I have stopped, hey, Angulimāla! And you, should stop right there.
When Angulimāla called the Lord to stop, he indicated “the Lord’s physical body not to move forward.” But in the Blessed One’s answer, the “mind” pinpoints “my mind has stopped and without any harmful intention to others, I have dropped the sword. As for you, your mind keeps moving, you are unable to lead yourself.”
The Developing Chinese Buddhism embraces: “Inherent purity, mind nature. Turning outward, being tainted.”
What can be advocated by those illustrations?
Generally, the Lord and the Patriarchies do remind us that our Mind is the very pure nature full of the awakening ability. Turn back to our Mind to recognize it and develop the insight potentials and the noble human dignities that cannot be existent outside or in any other.
This truth we might be hearing many times. But how come we still manipulate to look for it outside? We probably “get stuck” right here. We know the Buddha is in our Mind. But how come we keep being unpleased with our children and grandchildren, worried about our future, nostalgic for our past, stressed by social turmoil and suffering headache while earning our life? It is tough to keep our mind in peace and pleasure. Then, where is the Buddha? Where is the Prajna Insight? How come we are unable to dissolve such daily embarrassment and disturbance? Is it correct to say that pure mind is hidden far under those entanglements like the deep running water? And above all are the tidal waves harshly tossing up and down to shake and exhaust us?
My dear friends, humans have been “glued” on this point for thousands of years. It does not happen to us only. It is said that the Buddhahood is innately existent in each person. But why are the enlightened so few to see whereas only normal people and the oceans of sufferings seen?
How come? It is hard to describe that “jammed” area. It is nameless, shapeless, colorless and nothing inside. So, how could we refer to it? That is why those who could see it will get it; those who could not will not. However, the Buddha and the Zen Patriarchies have tried their best to talk about it in innumerable canons shown in various types. They have mentioned it, literally and figuratively, in the form of the worldly or ultimate truth. Some of them did not say anything due to frequently speaking but in vain. So, they immersed themselves into the Nirvana. Yet some felt empathy toward the human life. They vowed to be repeatedly reborn in the human realm or strongly determined to plunge into the hell to rescue the ignorant.
The more pondering on it, the more one feels empathetic with life and the more appreciative of the Buddha and the predecessors who preached on ethics and wisdom, who devoted themselves to protecting every inch of our native territory, who sweated in hard labor on farming and harvests. All, all of the above are just for the happiness not only for themselves but also for the whole country. What should we do today so that we can shamelessly look up at the high sky?
Our noblest responsibility to pay our gratitude to life is neither to build up the great structures, nor to write hundreds of books, nor to struggle for freedom and independence nor to be a president. Those are the mundane achievements. Yet, the worldly life is “merely the piles of ash”.
The dignified duty of a human being is solely how he could train his mind in order to reduce the numbers of unaware people. It is his greatest contribution to lessen the sea of everlasting wretchedness.
There is a sentence in one piece of sutra: “Nothing is more dangerous than the uncultivated mind.” The above sea of long-lasting affliction is the consequence of the unrefined mind. When we know how to nurture our mind properly, we can improve ourselves into the humans of insights who can live in the righteous way. How useful we are then!
Now comes the key knot of this piece of writing: “How can we do it?” - The answer is “Let’s live naturally.”
“Live naturally” is not in the common meaning. It does not signify to live extravagantly and do whatever one wishes.
“Live naturally” can be seen as to live in accordance with the nature, the laws of evolutionary changes, impermanence, cause-alligned conditions and causal effects without resistance. So, there is no sorrow for aging, illness and death, no expectation, no greed and craving. So, there is neither overly loving anything nor hating anyone. Resultly, there is no attachment, no worry and fear.
Following are some illustrations of the lifestyle of the enlightened in the history of Zen Buddhist Meditation.
“Eat when hungry. Sleep when tired.” (LinhChieu, Ban-Lung-Yun’s daughter)
Also below is the life philosophy of Ban-Lung-Yun, the Chinese Zen Master in the 8the century.
“Same routine every day
Only I myself know it
Everything, not picking, not refusing
Right or wrong, not excusing and explaining
Red or purple, not attaching
Mountains or mound, no more minding
Supernatural power and miraculous effects
Keep shoulder-carrying water and chopping firewood well.”
Ban-Lung-Yun only did the ordinary work, shoulder-carrying water and breaking firewood. Why is it considered the Zen miracle? When working, his mind was completely transparent, and he knew what he was doing clearly. He did not compare or cling to any image and color. He stayed in the non-discriminative wisdom and the nature of equality. That is to live naturally. He had no deception, no desire, no love and hate. He lived in his innately pure mind. He lived in self-composure and calmly left the world. When alive, he was the owner of his mind. When dead, he was also his mental manager. It means to be engrossed into the Nirvana.
In brief, mind cultivation is merely to train our mind so it can go back to its true nature: purity. When being pure, our mind is illuminating. Zen Master Pai-Chang said: “Empty mind land, wisdom sun self- shines.”
Bhikkhuni Thích Nữ Triệt Như
Written at the Sunyata Monastery, June 12, 2021
English version by Ngọc Huyền
Link to Vietnamese article: https://tanhkhong.org/a2391/triet-nhu-snhp008-hay-song-tu-nhien
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